Hall & Zinn

Hall makes it clear in his cultural studies that people make meanings, and over time these meanings are created from the communication within a culture. Those in power are the originators of meaning; they reinforce the ideologies of a society. Ideologies, as Hall defines, are “those images, concepts, and premises which provide the frameworks through which we represent, interpret, understand and ‘make sense’ of some aspect of social existence.” As Americans, we have complied with the democratic values of freedom and equality, and we have allowed the politicians, preachers, and corporations to govern the past, present, and future.

Mass media is crucial in the survival of cultural myths and ideologies; its influential resources generate the belief that people in power share similar interests with the rest of society. What we know is what the media tells us, and what the media tells us what the people in power want us to know. Truth is ultimately lost in the transition between media and society, and the result is a distorted cultural image. Hall calls for a resistance; we are the audience and we need to decide for ourselves what is true and what is false, we need to determine what’s really there and also what’s missing.

The above clip is a brief insight of historian and author Howard Sinn, and his revolutionary novel, A Peoples History of the United States. Sinn takes readers back to the very beginning with the myth of Christopher Columbus, and finishes with the current war in Iraq. Each chapter is a supplemental guide to the history of the United States, the actually truths of our culture and all that has been erased over time by those in power. Like Hall, Sinn sees what most do not, and although this clip can’t even begin to explain the depths of America’s democratic dissolutions, it should certainly make you think about who you are, what you know, and where you have been placed. Do you think you have been misinformed; or do you think you know all there is to know, both sides of the story? Below is an excerpt from Zinn’s book, however I would highly recommend reading the rest your self:

“They [Arawak men and women] brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and may other things, which they exchanged for glass beads and hawks bells. They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by edge, and cut themselves in ignorance… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” Christopher Columbus wrote of this in his log when he first reached the Bahamas, however he reported back to Spain that he had reached Asia. He asked for more ships and more men and in return he would bring back “as much gold as they need… and as many slaves as they ask. Thus the eternal God, our Lord, gives victory to those who follow His way over apparent impossibilities.” In the next two years, the Spaniards killed half of the 250,000 Indians in Haiti, and in thirty-five years, only 500 were left.

Zinn writes that “the treatment of heroes (Columbus) and their victims (the Arawaks)- the quiet acceptance of conquest and murder in the name of progress- is only one aspect of a certain approach to history, in which the past is told from the point of view of governments, conquerors, diplomats, leaders” … “The pretense is that there really is such a thing as the ‘United States,’ fundamentally a community of people with common interests. It is as if there really is a ‘national interest’ represented in the Constitution, in territorial expansion, in the laws passed by Congress, the decision of the court, the development of capitalism, the culture of education and the mass media.”
It’s just something to think about.

Encoding and Decoding Text

Stuart Hall is famous mainly for his cultural studies that take a look at the way humans interact with the media. One of his major ideas is that people don't only read and accept text, rather they encode and decode the text to decide whether they agree or disagree with an idea or argument that the author has made.

An interesting point that Hall makes, is that some people will agree with an argument made, while another person from a different lifestyle or culture will disagree on the exact same argument. This is all based on their beliefs and norms in their life.

Hall uses this idea to interpret how we react to the different types of media in our life. Hall explains that even when the author writes a text, the idea received by the reader/viewer, will be decoded at least a little bit different than the author intended.

An example could be seen with this video of the Liverpool soccer team. The video says that Liverpool is the greatest team in the world, but if you live in America, than you would not agree with the title. Of course, naturally, we tend to be biased towards the country we are from.